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Newsletter

We started camping at Glenmore camp site in the mid 1980s, initially because we were hoping to see some of the more unusual bird life in that area.

It is a great place to camp, being situated almost next to Loch Morlich and with the impressive Cairngorms as a backdrop. You can cycle and walk from your tent without having to use the car. And, as we discovered, you could sail from there too…Glenmore camp site is around 7 miles from Aviemore on the Ski Road and about 1,000 feet above sea level. It takes both tents and caravans/motor-homes. These days there is a tent-only area. Many of the pitches have a good view of the Cairngorm range. When we first went it was a Forestry Commission site but now it is run by the Caravan and Camping Club.

A kettlehole

From the site, the loch is just a few minutes walk through the pine woods. It is small, around a mile long and not quite a mile wide. At the eastern end it has a long golden beach made up of mashed granite brought down from the mountains by the Alt Mhor which feeds the melt-water into the loch.

There is a watersports centre on the beach. Canoes, dinghies and paddleboards are available for hire and it runs courses.

Loch Morlich Sailing Club is situated about half-way along the loch just off the Ski Road.

For the geologists among you the loch is a classic example of a kettlehole. During the Ice Age a large lump of ice broke off from a glacier and became buried. When the ice eventually melted a depression formed, it filled with water and formed the loch.

Loch Morlich is continuing to change as it is being slowly filled up with debris from the mountains. The beach is getting bigger and the loch shallower at the eastern end.

Add one Topper

We bought a Topper in late 1988 and took it with us on our next trip to Glenmore in May 1989. We could leave it on the beach but we brought the mast

and sail back to the tent each evening.

You do have to be somewhat hardy to sail there in the spring. The water is very cold as the snow melts and feeds into the loch.

“Fate took a hand when I won a

Topper…”

(It isn’t that much warmer in summer.) We eventually bought drysuits which were a huge advantage and allowed us to sail for prolonged periods without succumbing to hypothermia.

Two would be more fun…

Sailing the Topper there proved to be enormous fun and we took it again in1990. However sharing one Topper between four of us was a bit limiting. Two would be much more fun.

Fate took a hand when I won a Topper

Peter Craggs

Our annual trip to Ullswater is just a few weeks away

Angela Craggs

What’s been happening at YRISC?

IdeasLoch Awe articleWhat’s been happening at YRISC?UllswaterLevel 1 course

Sailing on Loch Morlich

And here is yet another article on sailing on a Scottish Loch! Will there be more?

Breezy conditions during one of our races on the loch

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in a Yachts & Yachting competition in August 1990. This one was a special ‘Limited Edition 90’ and had red spars to match its red deck. Kate adopted it when she used it on a sailing course that October, leaving Peter as the main user of the original blue Topper.

“…a seaplane flew in low …and

landed very close to them… ”

In summer 1991 we loaded the car with two teenage children, clothing and sailing gear and fastened a Topper and two lots of spars on top. Then we hitched up a large trailer containing the main camping equipment and the Topper foils but this time we had the other Topper on the top of the trailer. The car sighed!

Two Toppers proved to be more than twice the fun! The local sailing club has permanent buoys out in the loch and we

sailed impromptu races around them on many occasions. The winds could be quite strong at times, with waves crashing on the beach and that was when I stayed ashore and admired the others as they planed around the loch.

As it was only a short distance from our tents we could be sailing in a matter of minutes. We often sailed in the evenings. This could be hazardous as Mike and Peter found out when a seaplane flew in low, turned and landed very close to them on the loch.

No boats allowed

We took both Toppers to Loch Morlich for several more years and had a lot of fun. If we weren’t out walking, we were sailing. On our last family holiday there we took both Toppers and Peter’s Laser 4000 — and two cars.

We didn’t return to the camp site for a

holiday until 2011 (without any boats). We have been back for three more short holidays since. Our latest visit was in June this year when we asked about bringing a boat to sail on the loch.

Having described what a great place the camp site is to sail from I now have to say that it is no longer possible. Sadly they do not now allows boats to be brought to the site. The problem seemed to be the number of boat trailers. Kayaks and paddleboards are OK.

They suggested that if we wanted to bring a boat we contact he Sailing Club to ask if it was possible to leave a boat and sail from there.

We are very glad that we had the chance to enjoy being able to just walk through the pine woods to go for a sail. It made the perfect holiday.

The River Severn at Avon SC

During 2016 Peter Craggs trailed his Aero to various Open Meetings. This was the final event…

Would you know what to do…?

Mike Craggs is planning to run an RYA Small Craft First Aid Course on the 5th May 2018.

It will be held at the Club from 0900 — 16.30hrs. The cost will be £35 for club members and £60 for non-members, including a First Aid book and certificate.

The course will include hypothermia, CPR , bleeding, major illness and the use of a defibrillator.

This is a mainly hands-on course and will be based round water activities.

If interested please contact Mike at mike_craggs@hotmail.com

Mike will require a £10 deposit by 22nd April and full payment by 29th April. Please pay directly into the Club account and let Mike know when you have paid.

1. We didn’t travel light! 2. Preparing for a chilly sail. 3. Two Toppers, golden sand and a gentle breeze… 4. Duck!

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One of my favourite quotes used to be

“you can never have too many boats”.

I still hold this to be true to an extent, but perhaps there are exceptions to the rule — for example at the gybe mark of a triangle/sausage course with 120 boats…There was quite a build up to Steve Parry’s and my expedition to this remote end of the county, delivered skilfully by a well known member of the club. “It will take ages to get there because of the traffic”, “The waves are huuuuge”. “There will be either no wind or half a gale…”

In the end, not much of this was actually true. Perhaps we simply were lucky, but traffic was so light that we would have made it in one day if we hadn’t already booked a motel in Exeter. And yes, the waves were quite impressive on the first day, but not quite as big as I had imagined them.

“There were moments of glory…”

It did blow a gale on the Sunday and racing was abandoned. This was mainly due to the fact that the rescue boats were stationed in a little harbour on the Mount side which they could not leave due to tide and wave action.

Double digits

The wind itself, was good most days, perhaps slightly on the light side on the Thursday. As expected we didn’t do very well in the races with lighter winds. Our target was to end up in double digits. We did achieve this in several races (89 as our best result), but as we did quite badly on the Thursday we didn’t manage this in the end results. There were moments of glory though. At one point we were fifth boat at the first mark, before the fleet managed to pass us on the reach (we do have to work on the spinnaker reaches, as we lost several places there during quite a few races). In the last race we had a good start and again lost a lot of it during the first reach.

Improvements needed

We also need to improve the mark roundings, which often enough ended up in huge squash ups of boats, where gains can be made by either going around the whole thing, or even better, trying to time a good gap in the run up to the mark.

In the end though, despite perhaps not as good a result as we hoped, I believe I can speak for both of us in saying that a brilliant week was had and some great sailing was enjoyed. Overall we had a great time and an unforgettable experience.

This was my first major sailing event and I have to say that it was entirely enjoyable, perhaps boosted by the good weather. In that respect even Mounts Bay Sailing Club was lucky, because if it had been raining a lot, the club house and marquee would not have had enough room for everyone.

Commodore’s Corner

Cold water shock

Would you know what to do…?

Mike Craggs is planning to run an RYA Small Craft First Aid Course on the 5th May 2018.

It will be held at the Club from 0900 — 16.30hrs. The cost will be £35 for club members and £60 for non-members, including a First Aid book and certificate. The course will include hypothermia, CPR , bleeding, major illness and the use of a defibrillator. This is a mainly hands-on course and will be based round water activities.

If interested please contact Mike at mike_craggs@hotmail.com

Mike will require a £10 deposit by 22nd April and full payment by 29th April. Please pay directly into the Club account and let Mike know when you have paid.

Waves, wind and crowds…

Sailing the GP14 Worlds in Mounts BayJens Kuhn

The view from the Old Yellow Boat during the GP14 Worlds

Placid conditions at the GP14 Worlds in Mounts Bay

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Dates for your diary

Angela Craggs

York RI Sailing Club is a part of York RI, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registration number 1165513. Registered office: 22 Queen Street, York YO24 1AD

The Level One group practising their skills on the river Annual Regatta (at YOSC)

Our long-standing Annual Regatta will be hosted by Yorkshire Ouse SC this year.

It takes place on Sunday 9th September.

If you are planning to attend please contact Mike Craggs on:—

mike_craggs@hotmail.com

or sign-up on the notice in the Clubhouse before 31st August.

YOSC will need to know numbers for catering and organising the racing.

If anyone can take our safety boat it would be helpful

Changes to the Sailing Programme

Sunday 2nd September Racing will take place at the ClubMorning Handicap Summer series x 2 No programmed OD

Sunday 30th September

Alex Smith Race Steve Parry The Graham family

(This replaces the Morning Handicap and Autumn points races)

Loch Lomond Weekend 1st—2nd September

Steve Parry has been trying to find out further details of the event. However it seems that neither the organiser nor the Club have got things properly organised yet!

Steve says that the GP14 Scottish Championship will definitely happen so racing is no problem for Association members (crews do not need to be members and one-off event membership is available for helms if needed). However we don’t know what the situation is regarding cruising. Is it GP only or can any class join in?

Given the uncertainty Steve asks anyone who wants to be involved with the cruising to contact him for the latest details at:—

slparry@gmail.com

As details are so uncertain it has been decided to programme Club racing for that weekend, see below for details

Editor’s Note

I have amended the article on the Grand Opening

so any errors are mine.

Apologies to Hugh - there is no room for a

Commodore’s Corner this time.

And further apologies to those peop

le who have

kindly submitted articles that have not yet been

published. Rest assured they will be published in a

future edition. More articles would be welcome!

Angela